Onondaga County Legislator Sam Laguzza defends second home in the suburbs

Mike Greenlar / The Post-StandardOnondaga County Legislator Sam Laguzza sits on the porch of 145-147 Lilac St., on the North Side of Syracuse, a duplex where he says he spends two-thirds of his time.

By John O'Brien
and Tim Knauss
Staff writers

Syracuse, NY -- Take your pick: a 2,300-square-foot house on a woodsy suburban road, or a 900-square-foot apartment on a scrappy Syracuse street where sneakers dangle from utility wires and a fatal shooting took place last year.

Onondaga County Legislator Sam Laguzza concedes he resides roughly one-third of his time at his $173,000 house in the suburban town of Onondaga — 10 miles outside the urban district he has represented for 20 years.

But Laguzza, 56, said he spends most of his time in the second-floor residence of his duplex at 145-147 Lilac St., on the North Side, which is in his district.

He has two homes, but Laguzza, a lifelong North Sider, angrily denies the whispers that have followed him for more than a decade: that he does not live in his district. His neighbors and tenants back him up.

Bill Sanford heard the rumblings 10 years ago, when Sanford chaired the County Legislature. He abruptly demanded a meeting at Lilac Street with Laguzza, who satisfied Sanford that he lived there.

Just last November, the issue resurfaced when Laguzza’s opponent in the election circulated a handbill suggesting that Laguzza lived in the town of Onondaga.

“I have not been living a lie for 12 years,” Laguzza said during an interview at his Lilac Street home. “I would have put a gun in my mouth if I had to live a lie for 12 years, OK? This is where I live.”

Laguzza’s wife, Kathleen Marra, owns both the Lilac Street duplex and the house on Kasson Road in Onondaga. She bought the duplex in 1986, before she and Laguzza married. In 1998, Marra bought the house at 4827 Kasson Road because she needed more space for a home office and for entertaining, she said.

Marra said she lives only at the house on Kasson Road.

Laguzza and Marra said they have worked out an uncommon arrangement that allows her to have a large suburban house with a back yard while he remains an elected official from an urban neighborhood.

The key to the arrangement is Marra’s travel schedule. She works for a computer services company in a job that puts her on the road nearly 40 weeks of the year. Much of the past year, for example, she spent in Switzerland.

Mike Greenlar / The Post-StandardSam Laguzza's house at 4827 Kasson Road in the town of Onondaga. Laguzza says he spends about one-third of his time living out of this residence.

When Marra comes home, she and Laguzza live at the Onondaga house until she leaves again, they said. Last year, Laguzza estimated he spent 14 weeks with Marra at Kasson Road.

In addition, Laguzza said he spends one or two days a week at Kasson Road even when Marra is out of town. And he stops in sporadically to check on the house.

Laguzza said he didn’t keep track of exactly how much time he spent at Kasson Road in 2009. It could have been more than one-third.

Most of the time, Laguzza said, he stays at the Lilac Street duplex, where he lives upstairs and rents the downstairs unit to a tenant. He estimated that he spends about two-thirds of the year on Lilac. Even when he doesn’t spend the night, Laguzza stops in at Lilac Street every day, he said.

“This is our life,” he said. “We have a unique lifestyle. And it works. What is wrong with something unique working?”

As long as he resides in his district on Election Day, he’s eligible under state elections law to represent it. The Onondaga County Charter says only that legislators must reside in the district from which they’re elected.

Laguzza’s Republican opponent last year raised the question of whether Laguzza could fully represent the 16th District if he lives at least part of the year in Onondaga.

Kevin Kuehner mailed out a flier before the election with pictures of both of Marra’s houses, asking voters: “If you were county legislator for the 16th District, which house would you call home?”

Last week, Kuehner questioned whether Laguzza’s reason for the dual homes would sit well with voters.

“For him to say he’s up (in Onondaga) when his wife is home — does that mean he doesn’t think his district is a good enough place for a family?” said Kuehner, a lawyer who’s lost two elections to Laguzza. “If someone’s going to represent a community, they
should live in it.”

Laguzza’s neighbors say he does live in the district. All five Lilac Street neighbors contacted by The Post-Standard, plus a downstairs tenant, said Laguzza lives in the neighborhood.

“Sam lives here on Lilac,” said Mary Fortino, 67, his next-door neighbor, who has lived in the same house all her life. She said she often hears Laguzza’s pickup truck when he leaves before 5 a.m. to go to work at Wegmans supermarket in Cicero.

“In the warm weather, when the window is open, you can hear him. He goes out early in the morning to work,” she said. “You can hear the truck start.”

On Jan. 4 last year, Laguzza was in his Lilac Street driveway trying out his new snowblower about half an hour before a 15-year-old sniper in an attic two doors down shot and killed his neighbor across the street, 47-year-old Casimir Snyder.

Laguzza said he left home to run an errand before the shooting and was in his car on Butternut Street when he got a call about it from the mayor. Mary Grace Hicks, who lives behind Laguzza on Lodi Street, said Laguzza immediately called to tell her to stay indoors.

Hicks, president of the Northside Neighborhood Group, calls Laguzza frequently at his Lilac Street home and he almost always answers, she said. Laguzza attends the group’s meetings and is attentive to its concerns, she said.

Duane Snell, who owns the house where Snyder lived, said neighbors know they can take concerns about safety, noise, code violations or other issues to Laguzza.

“He doesn’t tolerate no nonsense on the block,” Snell said.

Laguzza said he called 911 about half a dozen times last year from Lilac Street — to report a prostitute in the neighborhood and other problems. But he reacts angrily to suggestions that he might prefer to live in the suburbs. He prefers the city.

“There’s such a stereotype that people with a good job — with a family, with kids, maybe with a little influence — wouldn’t live on the North Side. Why the hell not?” he shouted. “All I gotta do is walk to Little Italy. All I gotta do is walk to DiLauro’s (bakery).”

Sanford, the former Legislature chairman and a Republican, said he would’ve been more concerned about Laguzza’s residence if Laguzza weren’t so attentive to his constituents.

“One red flag that would go up with me would be if someone was neglecting their district,” Sanford said. “With Sam, he seems to be at every neighborhood meeting and doing the things a legislator should do, and he gets re-elected.”

Laguzza, a Democrat, might have a harder time winning election in Onondaga. In his Syracuse district, Democrats outnumber Republicans nearly four to one. In the 11th District in Onondaga, Republicans have a 5-4 advantage. Republican Patrick Kilmartin holds the seat.

Legislators are paid $25,591 a year.

Marra is registered to vote at Lilac Street, even though she resides at Kasson Road. State law permits a voter to register “at any place you have a significant tie to,” said John Conklin, speaking for the Board of Elections.

Laguzza and Marra list the Lilac Street address on all their official documents, including tax filings, Laguzza said.

Mark Stanczyk, the Legislature’s Democratic floor leader, said Laguzza’s arrangement is similar to that of public officials who own camps or summer homes. Many people with summer homes live in them three months a year, he said.

Laguzza agreed, saying no one would question his second home if it were on the waterfront.

But there’s a difference, said Kuehner, who said he stays at his parents’ camp on Lake Ontario in Oswego County on weekends over the summer.

“You’re not going away on vacation,” said Kuehner, who hasn’t decided whether he’ll run against Laguzza in 2011. “You’re just getting out of the district that you’re supposed to represent. You’re supposed to be part of the city. It’s not like he has a place in the mountains. He has a place in the suburbs.”

On a recent Tuesday afternoon, Laguzza stood outside his house on Lilac Street chatting with a reporter when a handful of youths standing at the other end of the block started blasting music. Ordinarily, Laguzza said, he would walk over and tell them to turn it down, but he had to hurry to catch the first of three evening meetings with neighborhood groups to which he’d been invited.